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ZIMBABWE:
"No action" vote by South bloc defeats human rights resolution
IRIN
News
April 16,
2004
JOHANNESBURG - A Zimbabwean
human rights body has criticised an African-Asian grouping which shot
down a draft resolution on the human rights situation in Zimbabwe for
the second year at the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
(UNHCHR) in Geneva on Thursday.
The draft resolution, mooted by the European Union and supported by the
United States, would have expressed "deep concern" at what it said were
"continuing violations of human rights in Zimbabwe, in particular politically
motivated violence, including killings, torture, sexual and other forms
of violence against women, incidents of arbitrary arrest, restrictions
on the independence of the judiciary, and restrictions on the freedoms
of opinion, expression, association and assembly".
The proposed resolution also expressed concern over the "failure to allow
independent civil society in Zimbabwe to operate without fear of harassment
or intimidation" and "urged the Government of Zimbabwe to take all necessary
measures to ensure that all human rights were promoted and protected".
However, an African group of 15 countries, including the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC), Sierra Leone, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland and Nigeria
backed a no-action motion on the draft resolution. The motion against
the resolution was carried by 27 votes against 24. It received the support
of 10 Asian countries, Cuba and the Russian Federation.
"It is disheartening to note that a matter related to the human rights
of the people of Zimbabwe has been reduced to the flexing of muscles between
the global South and the global North," said Brian Kagoro, national chair
of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum.
"The tragedy of Zimbabwe is that there is so much haggling over the racial
contortions of the crisis here. The fact that the lives of Zimbabweans
have been reduced to mere votes makes the entire issue totally meaningless,"
he added.
The Zimbabwean minister of foreign affairs, Stan Mudenge, was quoted in
the official Herald newspaper as saying that the country "was pleased
with the outcome of the vote and grateful to the international community
and the country’s friends, particularly from Africa, for supporting it
for the second year running".
During the debate on the no-action motion, Roger Menga, the DRC representative,
said the Zimbabwean government had been "demonised because of its redressing
of the uneven distribution of land that had been perpetuated since colonial
days", a UNHCHR statement
said.
The African group urged the authors of the draft resolution "to open real
negotiations with Zimbabwe and to avoid this path of confrontation. It
was recognised that Zimbabwe had some problems, but those issues should
be addressed nationally and, possibly, regionally or at the continental
level," said the press release.
The United States representative at the Commission, Richard Williamson,
said no-action motions "amounted to approval of the human rights abuses
being perpetrated by nations that disregarded the fundamental principles
of the Commission. The world community should resolutely condemn the repressive
policies of the [President] Mugabe regime that denied the Zimbabwean people
their inalienable human rights, and should publicly express its support
for and solidarity with the Zimbabwean people".
The Zimbabwean representative, Chitsaka Chipaziwa, was quoted in the UNHCHR
release as saying that whenever a similar resolution had been mooted,
the Commission had wisely rejected these "dreadful beasts dressed as cuddly
lambs". He also said "any human rights problems in the country were not
out of the ordinary and allegations on that front should not take up any
more of the Commission's attention".
Nigeria said it was committed to "a peaceful solution for the country,
both at the Commonwealth and African level. All [countries] should join
hands in the dialogue with Zimbabwe and avoid any action that might continue
the isolationist trend related to the country. In the light of these views,
and without prejudice to Nigeria's commitment to human rights and fundamental
freedoms, Nigeria would endorse the position of the African Group on the
no-action motion".
Nigeria, host of the Commonwealth summit in its capital, Abuja, in December
2003, was among the countries which voted for Zimbabwe's continued suspension
from that body. Zimbabwe was initially suspended from the Commonwealth
in 2002 following allegations that Mugabe had won the presidential elections
by vote-rigging and intimidating the opposition.
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